American Food for American Schools Act of 2026

This bill strengthens "Buy American" procurement requirements for federal child and school nutrition programs. It sets stricter standards for purchasing domestic agricultural products, establishes mandatory waiver and reporting processes for foreign food purchases, creates financial penalties for noncompliant food suppliers, and expands funding for procurement training programs.

* **School Food Authorities (SFAs):** Local entities operating federal meal and snack programs in schools and child care settings. * **Food Suppliers:** Commercial vendors and contractors providing food products to federally funded school nutrition programs. * **Federal Nutrition Programs:** Participating programs including the National School Lunch Program (including snacks), School Breakfast Program, Summer Food Service Program for Children, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and Special Milk Program. * **Parents and Guardians:** Families of children enrolled in participating school nutrition programs. * **Government Agencies:** State Educational Agencies (SEAs) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

* **Strict Purchasing Standard:** Removes previous language that allowed foreign purchases simply when domestic items were not "practicable," making domestic procurement a mandatory rule across covered federal nutrition programs. * **Domestic Product Rules:** Defines domestic products as U.S.-produced agricultural goods, foods processed in the U.S. that substantially contain U.S. agricultural commodities, and fish/seafood harvested in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone or by U.S.-flagged vessels. * **Waiver Requests and Approvals:** SFAs must explicitly request and receive a waiver from the Secretary of Agriculture before buying foreign products, unless specific exceptions apply. * **Parental Notification:** SFAs that buy foreign food items are required to notify parents or guardians at least once per school year. * **Supplier Contract Terms and Penalties:** Future contracts between SFAs and food suppliers must explicitly require compliance with Buy American rules. If a supplier breaches this by providing noncompliant foreign products, the supplier must reimburse the USDA an amount equal to the federal funds used to buy those items. * **Transparency and Reporting:** * SFAs must submit annual reports to their State Educational Agency regarding foreign products purchased without a waiver and any supplier noncompliance. * State Educational Agencies must aggregate these SFA reports and submit an annual summary to the USDA. * The USDA must maintain a public website listing granted waivers (published within 1 year of the first waiver and updated within 90 days of approval) and publicizing instances of supplier noncompliance.

* **Training Program Funding:** Reauthorizes the USDA's Buy American Procurement Training Program from fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2031, increasing its authorized annual funding from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. * **Penalty Fund Allocation:** Financial penalties collected from noncompliant suppliers are provided directly to the USDA Secretary to spend on procurement training programs, without requiring further congressional appropriations or fiscal year time limits.

* **Waiver Cap:** Approved waivers cannot exceed 5% of an SFA's total annual commercial food costs within any single food component category. * **Automatic Exception to Waiver Requests:** SFAs are permitted to buy foreign products without requesting a waiver if those items are not produced, processed, or reasonably available in the U.S. in sufficient quantities and of satisfactory quality. * **Use of Received Foreign Goods:** If an SFA receives noncompliant foreign goods from a supplier, the SFA is permitted to use those goods without applying for a waiver.

This bill mandates that federal child and school nutrition programs buy U.S.-produced food, requiring public reporting and parental notices if foreign food is bought, fining suppliers that provide noncompliant foreign goods, and quintupling authorized funding for domestic procurement training.